Tag Archives: valrhona

My ultimate favourite chocolate is Valrhona. Recently I had a mini sampling of the range at Sabato. I thought I would be persuaded to fall for a different type (hello Azelia – hazelnut) and Itakuja (passionfruit)) and was surprised to find myself steadfast in loving Manjari. The fruity notes first captured my love for Valrhona and it’s still my favourite.

I paired the Manjari with Caramelia (think caramel and salted butter), added blackberry and raspberry fruit puree to make a mousse.

I have already made this 3 times in as many weeks!

In order to facilitate the making of the domes, several of the elements had to be made in advance. The beauty of this is that I can break up the prep work over the weekend or nights, only spending a little time for each step. You can do this in one go, but this is how I managed the prep:

Chocolate brownie – baked in a square pan, cut rounds out of the pan (making sure that the diameter of the rounds is less than that of the silicone mold), and horizontal cuts were made to get thinner discs.

Fruit jelly – puree and gelatin were used to make these. They are freezeable.

Mousse – the last of the element and the day you make the mousse is the day you need to have enough space in the freezer for them to chill.

Mirror glaze – the drips can be saved if you prewrapped the catch tray with plastic wrap. You can safely reuse this for 1-2 weeks.

Makes 6 domes with extra mousse for about 4 smaller flat shapes.

There will be enough brownies, jelly and glaze for another round of mousse domes at least. For the second batch, I only needed to make up more mousse as the other elements were already complete! How easy is that 🙂

I’ve written the recipe below with the instructions immediately following the ingredients. This was easiest for me while making them as I did the elements separately.

Ingredients and instructions:

Brownie:

My chewy chocolate brownie. Usually entremets have a sponge dacquoise layer. Since I was making brownies, I thought maybe I should try it with my chocolate brownie? It gives a deep caramel flavour and chewey texture to the dessert. I had really good comments about this from my tasters 😉

Fruit jelly:

125ml fruit puree

1.5 sheets of gold strength gelatin

Soak gelatin sheets in cold water for at least 5 mins. Heat the fruit puree till it begins to boil. Squeeze water from gelatin sheets and add to puree. Stir to melt and pour into silicone moulds. Place in freezer to harden. Try different moulds for different presentation.

Here I’ve used a mini half sphere dome as an insert for the sphere dome shapes and also a spiral as the topping for the flatter round shapes like below.

Mousse:

110g Caramelia (milk)

40g Manjari (dark)

40g Ponthier Blackberry puree

40g Ponthier Raspberry puree

170g whipped cream

Chop chocolate to small pieces. Bring puree up to a boil and pour over chocolates. Leave for a minute before mixing until smooth and shiny. You may have to heat this bowl over a water bath to melt it all.

Whip cream to soft peak, and add half to chocolates. Mix well, and add the rest of cream.

Here comes the fun part. For the silikomart domes, choose shapes that don’t have sharp edges. Pipe mousse into the silicone mould, filling halfway. Push a jelly dome in, which will squish some of the mousse to the rim. Fill with a bit more mousse and add a brownie disc on top. Freeze over night. Big tip: Only remove from freezer and unmould when your glaze is ready to be poured.

Mirror glaze:

23g glucose

53ml cream

62ml water

80g caster sugar

26g dutch cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)

2 gold gelatin sheets

Presoak gelatin sheets in cold water. Cook glucose, cream, water and sugar to 103 degrees C. Add in cocoa powder and mix well. Squeeze water from gelatin sheets and add to the glaze mixture. Use a stick blend to blend the glaze till smooth. Place a piece of cling wrap directly on the surface of the glaze (touching it to reduce contact with the air), store for use later. Reheat to around body temperature (37 degrees C) and pour over mousse domes that has just been taken out of the freezer and unmoulded.

Can be kept in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. Reheating will darken the glaze. It’s so shiny you can even see my reflection if you zoom in!

Overtime, you’ll find yourself pouring more confidently. The operative word is confident. Pour from the centre and then outwards, and aim to cover it quickly. If you want to see this in action, go to my Instagram stories and look for the Sweet Recipe highlights. Give this a go and let me know if you like it or any flavour combos 🙂 Try different shapes too and don’t forget to decorate with Fresh As freeze dried raspberries and a bit of gold 😉

I turned one of my earlier Brownie recipes into a cookie! To be honest, these were inspired by the many versions of the same on Instagram lately, and for fear of missing out, I followed suit. Henceforth known as #fomocookies.

These are quick to make too!

Makes 20 – 22 cookies

Ingredients

300g dark chocolate (70% best chocolate, I used Valrhona), chopped

60g unsalted butter, cubed (I use Westgold)

45g plain flour

1 tablespoon finely ground instant coffee powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

200g brown sugar

2 eggs (about 55g each)

1 tablespoon water

Salt flakes, for sprinkling

Instructions

Place the dark chocolate and butter into a medium sized heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water.

Heat on a medium-low heat, stirring often, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, coffee powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the brown sugar and eggs on medium speed, until thick, doubled in volume, and light caramel in color (about 4 minutes). Add in the melted and slightly cooled dark chocolate. Continue to whisk until well incorporated. You may have to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Set the mixer speed to medium and add in the dry ingredients. Whisk until just combined, then, add in the water. Continue to whisk until homogenise. The dough should be fluid, and form a thick flowing trail when the whisk is lifted. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and set it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 15 minutes, or up to an hour. (Not any longer or it will be too hard to scoop.)

Meanwhile, preheat the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. Line three large baking trays with baking paper.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough evenly onto the prepared cookie sheets. The dough should be soft but will hold its shape when being scooped. If not, leave in the fridge for a further 15 minutes.Place 6-8 scoops on each cookie sheet with plenty of room to spread.Drop the sheets against the kitchen bench to slightly flatten the cookies. Sprinkle over a little of the flaked sea salt.

Bake the cookies for a total of 11 minutes.To make crinkles (method is according to Sarah Kieffer), you’ll have to do the following steps:

Set a timer for 11 minutes of baking. Place sheets in.

After 5 minutes, rotate the cookie sheet half-way around. Lift and drop the sheet against the oven rack to deflate the cookies. A small circle of crinkles should be visible on the outer edge of the cookies. Close the oven door and allow the cookies to rise again.

2 minutes later, again lift and drop the tray against the oven rack to deflate and further crinkle the cookies. They will be very visible (I was so excited when I saw these!) Bake for another 2 minutes.

Repeat one more time of lift and drop, and bake one last 2 minutes.

The cookies should be flat with plenty of crinkles. They should be just firm around the edges and set in the middle.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on their trays for 10 minutes, then to a wire rack to cool further.

I’m borderline obsessed with hazelnuts. One of my favourite ways of incorporating them are in these bars. I have been planning on making something with the Hogarth Milk Chocolate Hazelnut logs and an idea came to mind as I was making my gazillionth cookie over the Easter weekend: how about stuffing these inside a cookie?

I wanted a chocolate cookie that is on the dark side, and used Valrhona’s cocoa powder for the cookie dough.

The hazelnut log was cut into 20 semi circular pieces and placed in between layers of dough.

It was so exciting to break open the baked cookies to see the gooey filling. So delicious too!

If you can’t find hazelnut chocolate, you can freeze a rolled log of Nutella and use that instead.

Place a large scoop of cookie dough on the baking paper, flatten the centre with your thumb slightly, add a piece of the hazelnut chocolate log and wrap the dough around it to seal it in. I find it easier to start with a smallish piece of dough, place the chocolate on top and then cover with more dough. Just make sure the chocolate is fully enclosed. Place on the baking sheet well spaced apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, remove and leave it to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes.

Sometimes, the craving to bake or make something is so bad, that I just need a recipe that is quick, fool-proof and simple. By simple I mean one or two pans, minimal utensils (i.e minimal washing as our dishwasher is still out of action) and ingredients I readily have in the house. If this isn’t your first time on my blog, you would know I use Valrhona chocolate and always have a good stash of it in the house. If you don’t have access to this beautiful chocolate, please use the best you can find. Trust me, it makes all the difference to your desserts.

This is my go-to no bake cheesecake recipe, which combines all the things I like – Valrhona chocolate, Westgold butter, Tim Tams and cold desserts.

There aren’t many seperate elements to prepare in this recipe, which qualifies it as simple. I don’t even need the oven, just some fridge and freezer space. Tick.

I have been practising my chocolate tempering techniques and love how the cut chocolate shapes can keep for a while in a cool place, so I can use it on my desserts whenever I need them. i.e. readily available.

The beautiful dome shapes are made using Silikomart molds, and the design is inspired by the stunning work of Maja Vase, one of my favourite foodies on Instagram. These molds can be purchased online and through Savour, a Melbourne patisserie school by none other than Kirsten Tibballs. I dream of the day I fly over for their many cooking classes.

I’ve just taken delivery of some new molds and am so excited with the new cake designs that I am going to do soon. (People walking past me must wonder what good news I have, with the big grin on my face 😅). But for now, I give to you this velvety chocolate goodie.

P.s. by ‘quick’, I am referring to the making time, not how long before I can eat it. That part I don’t worry so much as I am more of a maker than eater, which I leave for my tasters.

Ingredients

350g Tim Tam Biscuits, Iced Coffee flavour (2 packets)

120g butter, melted (I use Westgold)

3 teaspoon gelatine powder

60ml (1/4 cup) boiling water

500g cream cheese, at room temperature

150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

400ml thickened cream

120g milk chocolate, melted (I use Valrhona Jivara 40%, notes of caramel and vanilla enhanced with a touch of malt)

Release the base of an 8cm-deep, 22cm (base measurement) springform pan and invert. (This is so that you get a straight edge.)

Grease the base and line with baking paper, then secure back in the pan, allowing the edges to overhang. Grease the side and line with baking paper.

Process the Tim Tams in a food processor until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until well combined. Transfer the biscuit mixture to the prepared pan. Use a straight-sided glass to spread and press the mixture over the base of the pan. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

Place the boiling water in a small heatproof glass. Sprinkle over the gelatine. Stir until gelatine dissolves. Set aside.

Use an electric mixer to beat cream cheese and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Add cream and beat until smooth. Add the gelatine mixture and beat to combine.

Divide mixture between 2 bowls. Add the melted milk chocolate to one of the bowls and stir to combine.

Fill 12 half spheres of the silikomart micro dome molds with the milk chocolate cheesecake. Place in freezer to set overnight. For the rest of the milk chocolate cheesecake, pour over the biscuit base and smooth the surface. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Fold the dark chocolate into the remaining cream cheese mixture until combined. Fill 6 of the silikomart quenelle molds with the dark chocolate cheesecake. Place in freezer to set overnight. For the rest of the dark chocolate cheesecake, pour over the milk chocolate layer and smooth the surface. Place in the fridge for 4 hours or until set.

Assembly

Remove cream cheese micro domes and quenelles from freezer and place strategically on the cheesecake. Sprinkle over Valrhona crunchy pearls and decorate with tempered chocolate discs.

It’s been a while since I made icing for cakes. I didn’t like my old buttercream recipe as it was fiddly and a bit too buttery for my taste. I haven’t tried swiss meringue buttercream and thought it would be interesting to see how it turns out.

Three words: WOW. WOW. WOW. Pillowy, soft and cloud-like. Amazing. Thanks to bloggers like @stylesweetca and @toplessbaker my cake deco game is back on! 🍰🍫 The buttercream was a joy to make and pipes so well. So smooth and tastes light. It also sets a bit when cooled in the fridge which is great if you have to transport it. This will be my go-to recipe for icing!

I added Fresh As freeze dried raspberries inside each of the layers, raspbery chocolate paste from Sabato, Miann gold dusted almond and coffee Valrhona dark chocolate, Solomon’s Gold new chocolate kibble (as deco pieces and also melted and added into the chocolate icing), Valrhona cocoa powder. What a cutie!

Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Whisk by hand to combine. Fill a medium saucepan one-third full with water and bring to a simmer.

Place the mixer bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double-boiler. (I have a small metal steamer rack that I use to rest the bowl on as my saucepan is a bit too wide for the bowl). Whisking intermittently, warm the egg mixture until it reaches 60-65 degrees C on a candy thermometer.

Once hot, place the mixer bowl back on the stand. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form and the outside of the bowl returns to room temperature (about 8 minutes). At this point, it should be very glossy.

Turn the mixer speed down to low and add in the softened butter and mascarpone, two tablespoons at a time. Stop the mixer and change the whisk to the paddle attachment.

Add in the vanilla, melted chocolate, and cocoa. Mix on medium-high until the buttercream is smooth, fluffy, and cloud-like (about 3 minutes).

Just for fun I switched the tip and pipped some ruffle stars as well!

Key points:

* Make sure your butter is at room temperature when you add it to the meringue. Keep mixing if it looks like it has curdled.

* Make sure your meringue has returned to room temperature before adding the butter or your bowl of cloud will become bowl of soup! Cool the whole bowl and mixture for 20 minutes before whipping again.

*Don’t run off and do something else between step 3 and 4. I made the mistake of waiting too long before adding the butter and it just didn’t come together. Lesson learnt and passed on.

Photography

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